/ 







PHILADELPHIA NATIONAL CONVENTION. 



jn 
of 



CIKCULAR 



OF THE 



National Committee of, the Pittsburgh Convention 



APPOINTED FEBRUARY 22, 185G. 



We solicit your attention to the call which 
has preceded this paper. It is not only to rec- 
ommend to the people the immediate selection 
of delegates from the several States, equal in 
number to three times the represents ion in 
Congress to which each Stale is entitle!, lo 
meet on the 17th of June, at Philadelphia, to 
present such individuals as they may think 
best suited to uphold the cause to which the\ 
a«-e devoted as candidates I'or the Presidency 
and Vice Presidency, but also to invite ihe 
members of all pirties, who feel it to he the 
dominant issue which should control the elec- 
tion, 10 meet at the same time and place, to 
conter with the Convention as to the best course 
to crown their common wishes with success. 
One of the parlies which will be represented 
at Philadelphia has taken the name of Repiib 
lican, because it whs given to that (bun led l>) 
Mr. J. fferson, to embrace aU who love the Re- 
public. There is no Democrat who does noi 
luve the Republic. There is no Whig who 
does not love the Republic. There is no A met 
ican who does not love the Republic And m 
fondly hope there is no naturalized citizen who 
does not love the Republic. 
— But it is not so important that the great move- 
ment, which we desire to see successfully inau 
guraied, shall be designated by any particulai 
name, as that it shall be strong, united, an i 
effective. Why may not all those classes, win 
are hostile to the introduction of Silvery into 
free territory, unite at this crisis of impending 
danger, to vote ioracomm >n ticket, which wil 
be nominated to assert the gran_d_principle o 
repressing the extension of sLiveholding mo- 
nopoly, and to vindicate the rights of the peoph 
in the sections of ihe Union vvho laho' with 
their own hands ? — a ticket which will not/ngi 
fate willv a view to detract from the rigl/'s o' 
all StatesXto dispose of ihe subject with ill theii 
limits, acceding to their sovereign Wil; ye 
its iuiluenceX to destroy the freedom af whitt 



laborers is a fit subject of investigation, with a 
view to repre>s the aggressive power in every 
constitutional way. 

The rights of the laboring class involved in 
tins question have been betrayed bv the Rep- 
resentatives from the North and South in the in- 
terest of the si iveholders, who have voted te 
surrender the lands to slave labor which wero 
set apart to make freeholders, and enrich the 
working men of budi sections, who own no 
slaves, who should emigrate lo them, cultivate 
md improve them with their own toil. Here 
ire two great principles blended in this cause — 
the one. impelling the vindication of the rights 
of free iab>r; the other, the chastisement ot 
those misguided Representatives who have 
violated the faith pledged between ihe two sec- 
tions of the Union to each other in their com- 
pact, an I iheir own faith as Representatives in 
misrepresenting the will of their constituents 
n the repealing acts, and disobeying their m- 
insiructions in reference to them. 

Can there be any difficulty in uniting the 
men of all parties, who concur in the great de- 
sign of delivering the masses from the oppres- 
sions of the slaveholders in the new Territories, 
and the fair, Ire-, henllhv regions of the Far 
West from the blot of Slavery, and ihe sterili- 
ty that atten Is its footsteps wherever it treads'? 
Tfnere are 347.000 slave-owners in the United 
States; they hold nearly four millions of slaves. 
Fh.ere are six millions of free white population 
in the Southern States who own no slaves, and 
rhwre are twenty millions of free white popu- 
lition in the Nonh. ( iliowing for the increase 
since the list census.) Are the interests of these 
twenty-six millions of people in the vastregions 
.f the West to be blasted, to admaiis'er to the 
pride, to the ambititwr. to the false views of in- 
teresi. hi which ihe347.O'00 slave-owners would 
indulge themselves? In their arrogance, they 
itjgriiaiize as Black Republicans those who 
would ojake a constellation of free, bright Re- 



■ 



|ublics, constituled of the white race alone; 
ntarnished by a slave of any color; their his- 
ry and their laws unblemished by that word. 
lie they called black, because they would re- 
deem their white brethren of the South, by re- 
serving to them a refuge from the thraldom im- 
posed on them by Negro Slavery there, and 
which makes the master the oppressor of all 
beneath him, of whatever complexion'? Are 
they called black, because they would resist 
the slave-owner with the sword, in his attempts 
to expel from their homes the sons of the Free 
States. w T ho have already cast their lots in the 
new hinds to which their fathers taught them 
to look forward as their inheritance, under a 
compromise of more than thirty years standing ? 
This derogatory epithet is inappropriately 
applied to those who labor to build up Free 
States composed of white men, to transfer the 
odium of the black institution from those who 
cling to it as a part of their Republican system. 
It is not proposed to touch the subject of Slave- 
ry in the States where it exists, but to shut the 
door upon it, and exclude it from Territories 
to which its approach has been forbidden. 

The attempt will be made to persuade those 
who would identify themselves with this cause, 
that there is no necessity to make a sacrifice ol 
minor differences to make Kansas a Free 
State — that the proclamation of the President 
has put down all danger of invasions — that 
General Atchison and his banditti and armed 
allies from the South have given up all idea of 
forcible interference — that they mean to acqui- 
esce in the peaceable settlement of the question 
in favor of that section which has shown that 
it can furnish the greatest number of emigrants, 
and this pacific attitude is to be held until after 
the Presidential election. If the nullifiers of 
the South shall then triumph in the election of 
a President nominated by them at Cincinnati, 
the usurpation established by Atchison will be 
found in full activity — its laws introducing 
Slavery into the Territory, and protecting it 
from reversal at the ballot-box, by the disfran- 
chisement of the settlers by test-oaths, will be 
enforced, and a Constitution, framed by defeat- 
ing the suffrages of the Free State settlers by 
disabilities, will be adopted, and the whole pro- 
ceeding will be sustained by the military force 
of the United States, upon the principles and 
under the authority of the President's procla- 
mation. 

Here we might close our Circular; but may 
we not trespass upon the patience of those we 
address, by exposing the workings of the insti- 
tution which those who arrogate to themselves 
the character of Democrats are laboring to im- 
pose upon our virgin Territories, and upon the 
principle asserted by them, that it is a Nation- 
al institution ? The movement to open the free 
Territories to Slavery, by repealing the com- 
pacts upon the subject, began with the nullifi- 
ers of South Carolina. We will begin with 



that State, to make an exhibition of the sort C* 
government it will enforce irr the West, from 
its results in the South. 

Popular sovereignty in South Carolina thus 
exhibits itself: Six districts in that State, in 
the rice and long staple cotton region, where 
the slave population is most dense, containing 
a population of 49,503 whites, elect a majority 
of the Senate, leaving in a minority those rep- 
resenting 209,084 wiiites in the rest of the 
State. In eleven districts, 77.939 whites elect 
"28 Senators and 64 Representatives, while 
eighteen districts, having 181,145 whites, are 
represented by 17 Senators and 60 Representa- 
tives. Thus less than one-third of the free 
population in the negro-quarter region have 
the supreme control of the Slate. The Legis- 
lature, elected by this third, appoints the Judi- 
ciary — from the Supreme bench to the common 
Justices of the Peace; elects Senators in Con- 
gress, and the electors of President and Vice 
President of the United States ; for the people 
are not allowed to vote at all for the electors of 
the President and Vice President of the United 
States, this being done by the rotten-borough 
Legislature, in defiance of the spirit of the 
Constitution, and the interpretation of every 
other State. 

The Governor of the State is also elected by 
this body, which represents a minority of the 
State — and negroes and land, exclusively — for 
no man is eligible to it unless he has real estate 
to the value of $700, clear of all debt, or five 
hundred acres of land and ten negroes. Nor 
can this state of things be changed, unless two- 
thirds of this land-and-negro-qualified body 
consent to the alteration of the Constitution — 
a thing never to be expected.* 

In Virginia and Maryland, the system of mi- 



* The Apportionment of representation, showing 
the rotten-borough system of South Carolina, which 
in effect makes the masters of slaves masters of 
the State, exercising the whole sovereign au hority 
through the Legislature cons' it" ted by them, ia 
taken from a publication in the South Carolinian, 
Columbia, S. C It was republished in Washington 
city in 1849, soon after it appeared in. Souta Caro- 
lina. The next apportionment does not take pla^e 
until 1859. underthe census of 1850. when the dis- 
proportion will be inTeasel, inasmuch as the white 
population, in ten years preceding the la-t census, 
increased not quite 6 per cent., whereas the slaves 
increase! nearly IS per cent., the slaves increiting 
three times as fast as the whites ; and as the rate of 
apportionment in South Carolina is to favor the 
masters who wield the legislative power, and is to 
give representation in greater proportion to the dis- 
tricts in which Slavery most predominates, it is not 
imp-ohable that the inequality already existing will, 
in 1859, be increased according to the ratio of the 
increase of the slaves over the poor whites. 

This supposition is based upon the idea that the 
policy which has heretofore controlled will be con- 
tinued. And as the slaveholdjrs of South Carolina, 
amouuting only to 25 596, nave the absolute lfgis- 
lative power in their hand, and dispose of the desti- 
nies of the 274.563 whites, of the 384,984 slaves, tnd 
the 8,960 free mulattoes and blacks, a tpleasure, thej 






A 



nority government, to give the control to the 
slave section over the greater white population 
in other portions of the State, prevails, but in a 
less degree; but in all the Slave States, whether 
contrived by constitutional provision or not, 
the result is, that the slaveholding class is sov- 
ereign throughout the South. 

It results from the concert produced among 
the masters, by their common interest in an 
institution which can only stand by force of ar- 
tificial means. The slaves themselves and the 
non-slaveholders are, as individuals, naturally 
against it; this makes it necessary that the 
slave-owners should become a phalanx — an ed- 
ucated, disciplined army, to sustain by political 
intrigue and united force all attacks upon it. 
There is noone all-absorbing influence among its 
enemies to combine adversaries in opposition. 
1 he consequence is, that the 347,000 masters, 
forever animated by the same instinct, can 
always vanquish partial and desultory opposi- 
tion, as standing armies in absolute Govern- 
ments keep millions of people in subjugation. 
The monopoly which near four millions of 
black men give to the united authority which 
commands them, makes it impossible that any 
single-handed competitor in the field of labor 
can, in cultivating the products of the soil, en- 
will not fail to make tha representative apportion- 
ment such as will rand j r their sway more secure, 
and put out of hops all who may dieam of reform. 

The following exrrac'8 f'nm the Constitution of 
South Carolina, as to qualifications of ail who are 
permitted to hold a place in the Government, prove 
that its soul is Slavery. It will he observed that 
"a settled freehold estate and tea negroes" is the 
starting point, and the lowest degee of quantisation 
required. This is put upon a pur by the Constitu- 
tion with a qualification of one hundred and fifty 
pounds of real estate, clear of debt From this the 
scale of qualification rises with the era-ie of offices, 
until it roaches fifteen hundred pounds of real estate, 
clear of debt, according to the data of the Constitu- 
tion, which makes tin negroes and a freehold eqiiv 
alont to unencumbered real estate of the value of a 
hundred and fifty pounds — and, for mot part, real 
estate in pantations is only valuable in pr portion 
to the slaves that work it. A. man who has the quali 
fixations of fifteen han ircd pounds, will, on the jata 
of the Constitution, probably own one hundred ne- 
groes. 

Ectracts from the Constitution if So?(tk Carolina,. 

By Article 1, Sec-ion 6, of the Constitution, it is 
provided, in reference to members of tbe Houso : 

'" If a resident in the election district, he shall not 
be eligible to a seat in the House of Representatives 
unless he be legal I v s-nz»d an 1 possessed, in his owo 
right, of a settled freehold estate and ten negroes, or 
of a r al estate of the value of a hundred and fifty 
pounds sterling, clear of debt. If a non-resident, he 
shah be legally seized and posssssed of a settled 
freehold estate therein, of the value of five hundred 
pounds sterling, clear of debt " 

By Ar^cle — , tiection 8, it is provided, in reference 
to Senators : 

" If a resWent in the e'ection district, he shall not 
be eligible uia'e.;s he be legally seiztd and possessed, 
in his own right, of i settled freehold estate of the 
value of thr<ie ikundred pou ids sterling, clear of debt d 



ter the market with the staple of the South on 
equal footing with men who wield the force of 
ten, twenty, and thirty, and hundreds of slaves, 
in companies. The owners of slaves command 
the markets — -they put down individual com- 
petitors — they buy out the little plantations 
which in the earlier settlements surround them, 
and in the end the rich lands all become the 
domains of rich planters. Hence we see in the 
older Southern States the poorer classes are 
either tenants at will, or, banished to the poor 
lands of the hills, take to the life of idlers, hunt- 
ers, or fishermen ; or, at best, the more indus- 
trious among thern become day-laborers, living 
from hand to mouih — in a word, they are strip- 
ped by the oligarchy of slave owners, who com- 
mand their wages, their tenements, and, of 
course, everything. The class who hold a mo- 
nopoly of the soil can command everything. 
" He takes my life, who takes the means where- 
by I live." Hence, in the South, the monopo- 
lists of the land and black labor of the country, 
although numbering but 347,000 out of a pop- 
ulation of six millions, in virtue of their power 
over near four millions of slaves, are absolute 
in all the State Governments. They are the 
Governors, the legislators, the|fhdges, justices, 
sheriffs — they are all in all. 

If a non-resident in the election district, be shall not 
be eligible unless be be se zed and possessed, in his 
own right, of a settled freehold estate, in the said 
dis rk-t, of the value of one thousand pounds sterling, 
cle^r of deht." 

By Article 2, Section 2, it is provided, that no per- 
son shall be eligible as Governor, unless he " ha»h 
residol within the State and been acitiz-n therein 
ten years, and unless he be seized a"d possessed of a 
settled esta'e within the same, in his own right, of 
the value of fifteen hundred pounds sterling, clear of 
debt." 

oy Article 2, Section 3 tbe same qualifications are 
prescribed for the Lieutenant Governor as for the 
Governor. 

By amendments of the Constitution, ratified on the 
17th of December, 18:18. the rlasis of Representative^ 
in the House and Senate was fixed, and has not been 
changed since. 

The House corsi«ts of one hundred and twenty- 
four members sixty-two apj ortioned in the several 
Districts, according to their number of white inhabit 
anls, and sixty two apportioned among the several 
districts, ac ordir g to " ths amount of ail taxes raised 
bv tbe Legislature, whether direct or indirect, or of 
whatever species, paid in each, deducting therefrom 
all taxes paid on account of property held in any 
other district, and adding thereto all taxes elsewhere 
pa'd on account of propfrty held in such d ; strict" 

The first apportionment was made in 1809, and a 
re- apportionment on the same principles is made 
overy ten years. 

In reference to the Senats, it is provided as fol 
lows : 

"The Senate shall be composed of one member 
from each election district, as now established for 
the election of members of the House of Representa- 
tives, except the districts formed by the parish- s of 
Ft. Phi'ip and St. Michael, to which will be allowed 
two Senators, as heretofore." 

This maizes the Senate a representation neither of 
numbors nor property, but of territories. 



The power which combined action givps ti 
the slaveholding class o< < r live whole South, \> 
wielded with equal < l?<-t-i to obtain control orei 

the North. The machine it moves there i> 01 
a large scale, and ihe instrumt ntality of its ac 
tion visible to the hast discerning eye. Even 
Northern aspirant lor the Presidency may b> 
looked upon as a power in the hands of tin 
Poulli, to ti.ove tin- machine of the Federal 
Government according to its will. We in- 
stance the experiment befoie our eyes. Mr. 
Pierce is a candidate for re-election to ihePres 
idency ; Mr. Douglas, Mr. Cass, Mr. Bu 
chanan, are hopeful rivals; each have then 
partisans in Uie difff rent sections of the [North 
some forty or fi r ty thousand office holders and 
dependents on Executive favor rely uponlheom 
or the other of these, to make them secure in 
their posts. Jt is known to all these people, 
that not one of the rivals can command a ma- 
jority of the Northern vote against the other — 
nor, indeed, against an opponent of any other 
party. For either of them, the vote of the 
South decides the question of nomination ; a tin 
then the possibility of election depends abso- 
Jutely upon a united Southern support. The 
Southern slaveholders, therefore, have the fate 
of all these seekers of the Presidency, of the 
so-called Democratic party, entirely in theii 
hands. 

And here we find in what consists that 
which is now vaunted to he the Democratic 
Party par excellence. It is composed of the 
office-holders under the present Administration, 
headed by those chiefs who are looked to to 
continue thpm in office, through the united 
vote of the South, and the chance vote of some 
Northern State, obtained by plurality — the re- 
sult of the division of their opponents, grow- 
ing out of personal preferences or party dissen- 
sions. The Democratic party, which the Ad- 
ministration calis its own, has no bans but in 
the oligarchy of th* South — we might weh 
call it the buck oligarchy, returnng to ii 
the appellation which it is so willing to give to 
others, because it most appropriately belongs 
to itself. The leaders of lii is party in the North 
have proved themselves entirely woithy of its 
confidence, by abandoning every principle of 
Democracy once their boast. They have 
abandoned the principles of the Fathers of the 
Republic, who considered it as the first attri- 
bute of the new order of things established b\ 
the Revolution, that it wool I arrest the spread 
of Slavery throughout the Continent. Jt did 
lead to its immediate extinction in many of the 
States, and the first act under the Constitution 
was to exclude it from the whole territory ol 
the Union. The Democratic leaders of tin 
new order, at the bidding of the Southern nul 
liliers, have broken all the compacts and com- 
promises designed to establish free Republics 
in the Territories from which Slavery was ex 
eluded. In doing this., they have put under 



r oot the representative principle. defied the will 
if their immediate constituents, on receiving 
instructions 10 repeal their acis have refused to 
hey, and in this have given the most sinking 
xample of an utter abandonment of the car- 
dinal doctr ne of the Democracy. The spread 
of Liberty, not Slavery, is its distinctive prin- 

eiplf, •' . 

They have shown that the will of 347,000 
-lave-owners in the South is more to them than 
i h,at of twenty millions of freemen in the 
North. The leaders of this spurious Democ- 
racy are but the satraps of Southern masters. 
The fate which awaits a people afflicted with 
i Democracy w.hich grows up under the gov- 
ernment of slave owners, may be seen in the 
testimony which we give in the words ol' the 
most distinguished men of that party, which 
we find collated in a pamphlet by Mr. Wes- 
ton. 

^OVIr, Sarver, of Missouri, in a paper on 
•' Domestic Manufactures in the South and 
West," published in 1847, says: 

" The free rooulation of th« South may he divi- 
ded ir to two cUs'es— tte slaveholder and the non- 
-.•taveh'ddi-r [ am not aware tV at the relative num- 
bers of these two classes have ever hero asc<->tain?d 
in any of tb« Slates but I am satisfied that the 
non slaveholders <ar outnumber the slaveho'ders — 
pe.rh«»pc by three to ooe. 1 ^ In the mTo southern 
portion of this region, th* Don slavi holder? possess, 
xe- er illy, but, very *ma!l mea' s. and the lard nh ch 
bey tc-sess is al<no=t universally poor and so sterile 
'hat a scanty subsistence is all that can be derivtd 
from its euliva'ion ; and the njo^e fertile soil.be- 
■ngin the possession of tbo slaveholder, n ust ever 
remain out of the p^wer of those who bave none. 

'• I'h'g state of things is a gr^at drawback and 
beaxs heavily upon anr' depresses the moral energies 
of the poorer classes. * * * The acquisition of 
a r"snectable posi'ion in t' c seal" of wealth appears 
so difficult, that th^y decline the hopeless pursuit, 
and many 'f them settle down into hatits of idle- 
ness, and become the almost p ssive sul jects of all 
its or nsequet ees. And I lament to say that I have 
bserved of late Tears that an evident detetiorat'on 
is ta'iin? place in this pa-t of the population, the 
vounger po't'on of it btirg less educated, less in- 
dustrious, and in evi-ry point, of view, less resp cta- 
r>le than their ancestors." 

Tn the January number, 1850, of De Bow's 
Review, in an article on " Manufactures in 
Souih Carolina," we have an exhibition of the 
fears entertained of bringing together masses of 
non-slaveholding Southern white population, 
even for manufacturing purposes : 

" S" long as these poor but industrious people 
could see no mo"e of living, except by a degrading 
operation of work wi h the f>ei_ro upon the planta- 
tion, thev wi re content to »ndure life in its most 
discouraging tortus, satisfied that tht-y were o/>f>v* 
the slave, though of'en firing wese than ho But 
the progress of ihe world is 'onward,' and though, 
; n some sections it i< slow, ttill it is ' onva-d ;' and 
the great ma's of our poor white population begin 
•ti undrrsi.n'd that hey ba^e rigbis, at d that they 
too, »r« entiled to sortie of the n ropathy wh ch falls 
'tpon the suffering Ttvey ar = fast, lesirnirg that tht ro 
is an alin'St intin'te world of industry ooenin* b" 
f>re them, by which thev can elevate themselves and 
their famihus from wrttshedntss and ignorance,; 



cornpetTce find intelHs-enc !. It is this gxeat itp- 
lie ■ ving (f our mass? > tit it in h ive to J'rur, no far as 
our i n tt it w- to ns are concerned " 

William Gregg, Esq.. in an address before 
the South Caronna Institute, in 1851, upon 
manufactures* remarks: * 

" from th« best estimates that T havo heen able 
to make, I put down toe wat'e. people 'vho ought to 
work, and who do n t, or who ar • so enii loyeo. as to 
bo w 'Oliy unproductive to the State, at one hundred 
and twenty-rL?e thousand. * * * By bis i 
apoeaft that but one fif.h of th->. present poor whites 
of onr State would to necessary so operate 1 000,»)flO 
spindles. * * * The appropriation annually 
m i io hy our Legislature for our school fund, e< eiy 
ooo must e aware, so far as fie country isconcerned, 
has btei little better than a waste of money * * * 
Wail- wo are aware that the Northern and Eastern 
S&atos find uo difficulty in educating their poor, we 
iirs ready to despair o* success in the matter, for 
even ] orutl laws against iho neglect of ed ication 
would fail to hri.'g many of our country people to 
send their ehildi en to school * * * 
■*" '"I have loig been under the impression, and 
every ciav's experience has strengthened my convic- 
tions, thai the evils exist in the wholly nop' 
eon hfon of this cla*s of persons. Any man who is 
an observer of things could ha dly pass hroogh our 
country without being struck with the fast that all 
the capita', enterprise, and intell /en e is employed 
in directing slave labor; and the conse;uonoe is, 
that a la'g-f );ortion of our poor white people are 
wholly neglected, and are suffered to while away an 
existence in a state but one seep in actvanae of the 
Indian of the fyr.estilt is an e\il of vast mashituie, 
and nothing hut a change in public sen iment will 
eff set its cure. These people must be brought into 
daily contact with the rich atd intelligent — they 
must be stimulated to mental aciion, and taught to 
appreciate education and th« comforts of civilized 
life; and this, we believe, may be effected only by 
tho introduction of manufactures. * * * My 
exp-rienca at btraniteville has satisfied me, that un- 
less our poor people can be brought together in vil- 
lages, and some means of employment offorded ihera 
it will be an utterly hopeless effort to undertake to 
educate them " * * * 

Here is the testimony of Governor Ham- 
mond, of South Caroima, the great leader of 
ihe nullifying party, now assuming the title of 
Democracy. We extract it from an address 
before ihe South Carolina Institute, in 1850. 
He is speaking of that class of people, estima- 
ted by William Gregg. Esq., of South Carolina, 
in his address before the south Carolina Insti- 
tute, 1851, to be 125,000 — one-half of the white 
population of the Stale : 

" They obtaia a precarious subsistence by cea 

sional j >bs, by hunting by fishing, by p'unden'ns; 

.fi Id- or folds and too often by what is in its effects 

ar worsa- trading with slaves, and seducing tt,em 

o plunder for their benefit."' 

Hon. J. H. Lumpkin, of Georgia, speaking, 
in 1852, upon the industrial regeneration of the 
South, says: 

" It is objected that these manufacturing cstab- 
li-hrnents will become the hot-beds of crime. * * * 
But I am by no means ready to concede that our 
po >r, de&raded. half-fed, half-clothed, and ignprant 
popular.ioVi— without Sabbath schools, or any other 
kind of instruction, men'al or moral, or without any 
ust appreaiWtion of character — will be injured by 



giving them employment which will bring them un- 
let the oversight of employers who wi'l inspire them 
with self-respect, hj taking an interest in their wel- 

lare." 

""We close our quotations by an extract from 
an address delivered, a few weeks since, by 
Hon. C. C. Clay, jr., of Alabama : 

" I can show you, wih sorrow, in the older por- 
tions of Alanaui.i, a id in my native county of Madi- 
son, the sad memorials of the artless ana exhaust- 
ing culture ol cotton. Our small planters, af er ta- ■ 
king tho cream of their binds, unable to restore iheoi I 
by rest, manures, or otherwise, aro going lurther 
west and south, in search of otber virgin lands, 
which they may and wi'l despoil and impoverish 'n 
l.ke manner. Our wealthier planters, with greater 
means, and no more skill, arc buying out ih-ir poor- 
er neighbors, exle oirg their planrations, and add- 
ing to their slave foiee The wealthy lew, who are 
able to live on smaller profits, and to give their , 
blasted fields some rest, arc thus pushing off the mai-y i 
woo a;o m-rely independent 0; the $2(1,000, COO an- 
nually realized from the sales of ihe cotton crop of 
Alabama nearly all rot expended in supporting tho 
producets. is reinvested in land and nrgit.es. 

'"Thus the white population has decreased, and 
the slave increased, almost pari, passu, in several 
counties in our State. In 1825, Madison county ras.t 
about 3.0(0 votes; now sherannot cast exceeding 
3,;-':00. In traveling that c"un;y, one will discover 
num-rous farm-houses, once tbe abode of ir dustriou? 
and intelligent freemen, now occupied by slaves or 
tenantiess, deserted, 8Dd dilapidated; he will ob- 
sorve r.elds, on-e f rtile, now unfenced, abandoned, 
and covered wth th^se evil harbingers-, fo*-tail and 
broomsedge; he will sec the '; oss growing on tbe 
mouldering walls of once thrifty viUages atd will 
find 'one only master g asys the whole domain,' that 
once turni hed happy home* for a dozen white fami- 
lies. Indeed; a country in its infancy, where firty 
years ago scarce a forest tree had been felled by tbe 
axe of the pioneer, is already exhibiting the paintul 
signs of semli'y and decay, apparent in Virginia and 
the Garolinas." 

This gentleman is distinguished as a zealot 
for the extension of the blessings of Slavery to 
the free Territories/ The above extract from 
his eloquent speech is a picture drawn from 
life, and exhibiting to the eye thp charms of 
Slavery, which the small freeholders of the 
North and West, who cultivate their farms 
with their own hands, well know how to ap- 
preciate, from contrast. 

We would not have adverted to the disfran- 
chisement of the mass of the white population 
in South Carolina and other Southern States, 
by property qualification for office, and the de- 
feat of the right of suffrage by the rotten-bo- 
rough system, had we not seen with what con- 
tempt of every principle of free government 
the attempt is now made to carry Kansas for 
Slavery. An usurpation, put up with force 
and arms by Gen. Atchison, has already estab- 
lished Slavery in that Territory, has guarded it 
with test oaths, and denounced the death pen- 
alty against all who oppose it. The President 
of the United States is pledged by his procla- 
mation to maintain the usurpation, and if he 
is re-elected, or any other nominated by the 
South to succeed him, the army of the Uniied 



States will be employed to rivet Slavery on 
Kansas, under the laws passed by Gen. Atchi- 
son's followers from Missouri. ''The North 
nmsi unite to defeat this attempt by the election 
of a President who w:ll maintain the rights 
of the people of the North in the Territory, or 
a cordon of Black Republics will stretch from 
Missouri west to the Pacific/The consequence 
will be, that no tree white Republic will be per- 
mitted to arise south of the tier of Slave States. 
The free settlers ol' the North, on their way to 
Kansas, are now obliged to turn away from 
Missouri, to reach their destination with their 
property, and means of defending it. 
-•''"What will result from the creation of a cor- 
don of Slave States across the Continent'? It 
surrenders all south of it to Slavery. And what 
will be the condition of the slaveless white 
population which must spring up in this vast 
region ? We see. in the fate of the poor free 
population of Mexico, to " what complexion it 
must come at last," whenever slave monopoly 
has once siven its owners the mastery over the 
soil. Slavery nominally is abolished throughout 
the Republic of Mexico, but exists, in fact, 
under the name of peonage. The owners of the 
soil feed and clothe those who work for them ; 
they charge their laborers more for their sup- 
plies than they agree to pay them for wages; and 
the result is. that the laborer is constantly fall- 
ing more and more in debt, and the law sub- 
jects him to his creditors until he works out 
his indebtedness. The effect of the system is 
to compel a man to sell himself and his family/ 

And this, taken in connection with the con- 
dition of the poor white population in the 
South — as shown in the passages wp have ta- 
ken from the address of Governor Hammond, 
of South Carolina, the Hon. C.C.Clay, of 
Alabama, and other leading Southern states- 
men — explains the recent article in the Rich- 
mond Enquirer, the oracle of Southern inter 
ests, which elaborately argues the right of sub- 
jecting whites, as well as blacks, to Slavery. 
Nay. it goes so far as to insist that this right of 
making white slaves is "inalienable." The 
article thus presses this point : 

'They (those holding Mr Jefferson's doctrine) 
begin to reason, by assuming Slavery to be mo ally 
and religiously wrong; and the South bitberto has 
granted thoir premises, ami attempted to justify No- 
pro Slavery, as an exception to a general rule, or, if 
wrong, as a matter of bargain between the North 
snd the Stub. The laws of God and niln.n tare 
■immutable, awl man cannot bargain f//*m away. 
Whilst it id far more obvious that negroes should be 
slaves thai) whites — for they are only fit to labor, 
not to direct — yet t hi principle of S-'avrry is itself 
right, and dots not depend on difference of complex 
ion." 

Under this doctrine, it follows that here a 
more direct enslavement of the white race may 
be insisted upon than that obtained in Mexico, 
under the contrivance of debtor vassalage. 
The doctrine is a positive sanction to the bond- 
age of the white race, and asserts that " the 



laws of God and nature are immutable " in its 
support, " and man cannot bargain them 
away." It is practically illustrated now in 
the Utah Territory, where a man holds a mul- 
titude of women as slaves, calling them his 
wives. What is there in Mr. Ritchie's princi- 
p'e, to prevent Brigham Young from holding 
ninety white men as slaves, unuer bills oi sale, 
as well as ninety white women under pretence 
of the bonds of matrimony ? 

Mr. Ritchie's explanation of the Southern 
doctrine of Slavery, together with Mr. Doug- 
las's act for the Territories, which " leaves the 
poeple perfectly free to form and regulate iheir 
domestic institutions in their own way, subject 
only to the Constitution of the United Slates," 
certainly authorizes the Mormon State to come 
into the Union with the Turkish system full 
blown, which makes slaves of all colors, and 
wives without number, "it is a sad comment- 
ary on our progress, that at the moment when 
the news arrives of the Suitan's firman, put- 
ting an end to the traffic in slaves in his em- 
pire — of the Czar's steps for the liberation of 
the serfs in Russia, and of theiu actual enfran- 
chisement in the Danubian principalities — we 
should have Negro Slavery forced on one Terri- 
tory by a usurpation set up by the sword, and 
the right of the Mormons recognised in an- 
other to hold a multitude of the gentler sex in 
servitude, under the unnatural law of a plural- 
ity of wives. / 

W T e hold that Congress is bound by the Con- 
stitution " to make all needful rules and regu- 
lations for the Territories of the United States," 
and, during their pupilage and preparation to 
become members of the Confederacy, to pre- 
vent the growth within them of systems incon- 
gruous with the pure and free, the just and 
safe principles inaugurated by the Revolution. 

'e. D. MORGAN, New York. 
FRA'NCIS P. BLAIR, Maryland. 
JOHN M. NILES, Connecticut. 
DAVID WILMOT, Pennsylvania. 
A. P. STONE. Ohio. 
JOHNZ GOODRICH, Massachusetts. 
GEORGE RYE. Virginia. 
ABNER R. HALLO WELL, -Maine. 
F S. LELAND, Illinois. 
CHARLES DICKEY, Michigan. 
GEORGE G FOGG, New Hampshire. 
A J. STEPHENS. Iowa. 
CORNELIUS COLE, California. 
LAWRENCE BRAINERD, Vermont. 
WILLIAM GROSE. Indiana. 
WYMAN SPOONER, Wisconsin. 
C. M. K. PAULISON, New Jersey. 
E. D. WILLIAMS, Delaware. 
JOHN G. FEE, Kentucky. 
JAMES REDPATH. Missouri. 
LEWIS CLEPHANE. Dist. of Qui, 

National Committee, f 

Washington, March 26, 1836. 

I 

/ 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

BUKIJ. & B1ANCHABD, PRINTERS. 

1856. 



TO THE OPPONENTS "bimry of congrS"~I0N. 

A Presidential Canvass of unusual t / ////// f / /// f /// / /// // /// 1/ /f /// /|// / // // / ///// If //| ///// // // // / / e °^ which 
the result must go far to determine wl / ////// |//i / f / // / ///// ' 'f // ////^ //// / //// 1 ///// 1/'// // /// // // //// ; ' f ' !i> P°^ e " 

star of our National course— whethej ' iff/// If/// ||f|| lilniVPwIVmifffllfli r,n >i<t >d hy 
Providence to our keeping, shall be st 9 011 gg§ 3piq q ^ jent, happy 

freemen, or by lashed and blinded slaves, it is m.^v ,... r _ "it the true 

bearings of this contest be set forth and diffused, not in the heat of the struggle, 
after every one shall have taken his position and resolved to maintain it, but 
now, while the popular mind is measurably calm and unprejudiced. In view of 
these considerations, the National Publishing Committee have issued, and will 
continue from time to time to publish, the most important Speeches and Essays 
which have appeared and shall appear on the side of Free Labor and Human 
Plights, which, we trust, those who love the cause will purchase for gratuitous 
circulation among their friends and neighbors, with an eye to the struggle be- 
fore us. 

Eight page documents will be furnished at the rate of 62ets. per 100 copies, 
and 16 page documents at $1.25 per 100 copies, free of postage. Where 500 
or more copies are ordered of any one document, a discount of 20 per cent, will 
be made from these rates. 

In order to facilitate their circulation, no extra charge will be made for en- 
veloping and directing them to such names as may be furnished. 

The very low price at which these documents are furnished, puts it within the 
reach of every one to aid in their distribution. 

Address, L. CLEPHANE, 

Secretary, Washington, D. C. 

LIST OF DOCUMENTS ALREADY PUBLISHED. 
At 62 cents per 100 copies — (free of postage.} 
By Rev. H. W 



Defence of Kansas 
Beecher. 

Letter of Francis P. Blair to the Re- 
publican Association. 

The Poor Whites of the South. By 

Geo. M. Weston of Maine. 
Southern Slavery Reduces Northern 
Wages. Address by Geo. M. Weston, de- 
livered in Washington City. 

Circular Accompanying the Call of the 
National Committee appointed at the Pitts- 



Reasons for Joining the Republican 

Party. By Judge Foote of New York. 
Kansas Contested Election. Speech of 

Hon. John A. Bingham of Ohio. 
Kansas Contested Election. Speech of 

Hon. John Hickman of Pa. 
Kansas Contested Election. Speech of 

Hon. J. Washburn, Jr. of Me. 
Kansas Affairs. Speech of Hon. H. 

Waldron of Michigan. 
The Slavery Question. Speech of Hon. 

John Allison of Pa. 



burgh Convention 

At $1.25 per 100 copies — {free of postage.) 



Address of the Pittsburgh Bepublican 
Convention. 

Organization of the Free State Govern- 
ment in Kansas and Inaugural Address and 
Message of Gov. Robinson. 

Judge Collamer's Minority Report on 
Kansas Affairs. 

Oration at Plymouth. By Hon. Wm. 
H. Seward. 

Affairs in Kansas Territory. Speech 
of Hon. L. Trumbull of 111. 



The Dangers of Extending Slavery, and 

the Contest and the Crisis. Two Speeches 

of Hon. \V. H. Seward. 
Immediate admission of Kansas into the 

Union. Speech of Hon. W. H. Seward 
Admission of Kansas. Speech of Hon. 

Jas. Harlan of Iowa, 
The Wrongs of Kansas. Speech of He' 

John P. Hale. 
The State of Affairs in Kansas. Speech 

of Hon. Chas. Sumuer. 



IN THE GERMAN LANGUAGE. 



Letter of Francis P. Blair to the Re- 
publican Association. 

Address and Declaration of Principles 
of the Pittsburgh Convention. 



The Contest and the Crisis. Speech of 

Hon. W. H. Seward. 
The Dangers of Extending Slaver 

Speech of Hon. W. H. Seward. 



*s 



o 



BB^ V 



OOA 



OFCONGBESS 
A 898 309 9 





